Chapter 8 and 9

Chapter 8 sought to determine whether physical activity was very important to health and longevity. The researchers found out that participants’ activity levels remained stable throughout their life. In addition, they discovered that popular children grew up to be more active adults compared to their less social counterparts. This finding does not surprise me because I find that people who are social care more about their physical appearance and overall health, so they exercise more. After the age of 60 however, social individuals’ activity levels decreased and they tended to match activity levels of less social adults. Ultimately, the researchers concluded that being active in middle age was the most important to living longer. They also stated that it does not matter if you are not as active as a child as long as you become more active as you age. But what if you develop some type of chronic condition as a result of your inactivity during your youth. Wouldn’t this mean that you are more likely to die sooner despite becoming more active at the age of 40?

Chapter 9 looked at the role of marriage in longevity. I was surprised to find out that married men live longer. This surprised me because in general, men have unhealthier habits than women and they tend to take greater risks. The researchers said that this finding was connected to conscientiousness. The men who remained married throughout their life were more conscientious than those who remarried or divorced. It did not surprise me that the husband’s happiness was key to being healthy later on. This is not surprising because I feel like a lot of women are dependent on their husbands financially and often emotionally. So if a woman’s husband is happy with his life and marriage, chances are she will be happy too. I predict that as women start to become the breadwinner in families and hold higher paying positions, that a wife’s happiness will become key to her longevity as well as her husband’s

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2 Responses to Chapter 8 and 9

  1. Gabe Thomas says:

    Alli, great summary! I really appreciated your post, and found the last part particularly interesting as well. I feel like in the world we live in today, women have become the breadwinner in a lot of families. I would predict this shift would increase the importance of the wife’s happiness to longevity. I would like to see a study that tests this hypothesis to see if women’s happiness is just as important as men’s now.

  2. Maya Wright says:

    I agree with you on the point that social people may care more about their physical appearance which may explain why they exercise more. To answer your question, I think that if someone developed a chronic condition in their youth from lack of exercise they would die sooner, but if they started exercising in their middle ages the chronic condition may become easier to manage. For example, if a child developed diabetes or a disease related to poor nutrition or lack of exercise, exercise may make diabetes or whatever condition more manageable. I definitely agree that women base their emotions around their partner’s feelings. I also agree that as women start to gravitate toward being head of the household, men’s happiness will be dependent on women.

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